316 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



forty-eight hours. I economized on sleep, 

 working late at night in the little laboratory 

 which I had fitted up where I gave lectures on 

 chemistry to a class from some nearby school. 

 I made this exciting and informative if not in- 

 teresting to the scholars, for I had harmless hy- 

 drogen pistols scattered about and if a too amor- 

 ous youth preferred whispering to a girl to 

 absorbing the wisdom which I was disseminat- 

 ing, the touch of a button exploded a bomb un- 

 der his chair, and the retribution of an electric 

 shock often followed the forbidden handling of 

 apparatus. 



At the shop I made mechanical, physical and 

 chemical apparatus to assist or illustrate my 

 study of those sciences. The work varied from 

 making a small steam engine to a polariscope, 

 from constructing an electrical engine that when 

 power was applied would develop electricity, or 

 conversely would convert the current of a battery 

 into available power, to making a RuhmkorfT 

 coil with twelve miles of secondary wire. 



The employees were interested in all my work, 



